The present invention relates to a hydro-electric power plant using a diversion dam.
Increases in population and technological development have created unprecedented demands for new sources of energy. Water power has been long known as a source of potential energy for generating electricity and where it has been used, it is an efficient and clean source. Millions of gallons of water flow through the inland waters of the United States daily which represent a vast source of power that has not been exploited to anywhere near its full potential.
Most hydro-electric power plants are located adjacent dams and natural waterfalls. However, in most cases, these plants are located in remote locations where natural runoff is available or where a dam can be efficiently constructed and maintained. High dams require that the flow of water be stopped so that valuable acreage is flooded creating limitations on land use. Also, dams have created problems regarding the migration of fish upriver to the spawning grounds among other ecological imbalances.
The initial high costs of construction of conventional hydro plants, estimated to be twenty times higher than the costs of the subject invention, damage to the environment, public opposition to projects destroying the land, and costly impact studies are all avoided by the disclosed system. Additionally, this system is dependent only on our great natural, renewable water systems and not on oil, coal, nuclear energy or the whims of foreign nations.
Another disadvantage of the present hydro-electric power generating plants presently in use is that the prime movers and turbines over which the water flows to convert water into power are generally constructed in situ, and shut down of one of the units generally shuts down the whole plant.
Thus, most of the potential power resulting from water flow in many of the present waterways remains unused, particularly, in the smaller streams and waterways of this country. As for the larger rivers, this system would permit, for the first time, hydro-electric plants along some of our great rivers, such as the Hudson, Mississippi and Potomac.
Prior attempts at developing this potential hydro-electric power have been disclosed in the patent to Gilliland U.S. Pat. No. 757,909 which relate to a portable power dam; the patent to Diggs U.S. Pat. No. 4,053,787 which relates to a modular hydro-electric power plant; and the French Pat. No. 899,232 which relates to another modular type of hydro-electric installation. Other patents of interest include the patent to Flynn U.S. Pat. No. 921,687 which shows a hydro-electric power plant using the flow of a river, and the patent to Montgomery et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,641,108 which relates to a hydro-electric jetey using wave power to generate electricity.
The present invention relates to a hydro-electric power plant using a diversion dam where river waters are harnessed without the usual dams in order to harnass the powers of free flowing rivers at any location in the world. The power plant of the present invention does not require flooding or building of artificial lakes and, thus, does not restrict commercial ship traffic nor does it interfere with the natural flow of the river and the marine inhabitants thereof. The power plant and diversion dam system of the present invention is not restricted to specific locations and can be placed anywhere along a waterway. The system may be used as often as is needed or wanted along the same waterway thereby decreasing the cost of producing electricity, decreasing the cost to the consumer and meeting the increasing demands of our nation. Operational and repair costs are far less than any conventional plant using nuclear or fuel burning energy sources.